Here are some shots I took recently from a timberframe we cut and raised in the fall.
This one is unique because we actually sawed all the timbers from logs that were fire-killed in the drainage just behind the house. It sucked and I never want to saw that many logs again. Millwork is definitely not my favorite thing to do, and on this scale it was just plain not fun.
Mostly we use coastal kiln dried fir or reclaimed, so it is super stable. This stuff was green and it was checking and popping all over in the shop before, during, and after cutting. We had to resaw many timbers that just moved or checked too much.
It came out pretty well, though. I actually prefer the rugged look with lots more sapwood. Sometimes the kiln dried timbers we get are too perfect looking, almost boring.
The great room is a little busy for my tastes, too. I would have rather seen sheetrock for the ceiling to make the timberwork stand out more. But what do I know…I just cut what they tell me.
Replies
jesse,
great looking timber frame..
tell me more about it. who big was it? how many in your crew? what sort of equipment did you use? did you build with SIP's ?
How many man hours do you think you spent doing the mill work and how much did you spend sawing the trees?
At the time we cut it, I was one of four joiners (there are two more now). I really have no idea how long it took to cut. The house was a remodel, and we did that front porch, the whole roof system, and the back porch. I think we usually figure there is around four hours per piece, which includes joinery, brushing (with a Makita wheel sander), sponging on a coat of oil, and bunking for shipment. Some pieces, like common rafters, obviously take less time. I think those valleys took about 8 hours each just to lay out (there is a lot to them you can't see, they actually lap over the lower ridge), plus another 8-10 to cut. There are panels on the roof. We did not do them...we mostly just cut frames, although we do occassionally install panels on roofs. Not if we can help it, though. :)Sorry I can't help more with your timing questions. We had the logs delivered, and it took weeks and weeks of sawing. We tried to get free of heart timbers on all but a few pieces...and some of the timbers are longer than our Woodmizer likes to do...which can be a real PITA. I actually am only a part timer at the shop now. I am a Realtor (I can hear everyone booing and hissing) now, and am stuck in the office today, so I threw these pics up. I am only 26 and timberframing was wrecking my body...my passions are skiing and kayaking and it was tough to motivate to do those things after a long week in the shop.As for tooling, we have a number of 10" Bigfoots, 16" beam saws, Mafell chain mortisers (the Makita ones are horse#*& compared to Mafell, we have two and they NEVER get used), Makita chisel mortisers, 3hp Fein routers (the best I have ever used), and a fully hydraulic Woodmizer that cuts up to 21 or 23 feet, amongst all the other more standard tools (you know, like 8 Makita 1/2" drills, a dozen or so 4 inch grinders, 7 and 8 inch wormdrives, etc).
Couple more details. Here is a shot that better shows the complexity of the top of the valley. Note the free tenons working in two directions.And one with the parallel ridge and braces. Most of these are fully housed, in addition to the standard mortise and tenon joinery.
Thanks for sharing that Jesse,
I looked carefully at Mafell before I bought my Mikita stuff. Sure the Mafells are better but I didn't think they were nearly 10 times better.. That plus being tied to 220 volt meant that all field work was out..
I know a few full time timberframers and all but one of them use Mikita exclusively. You are right in that the Mafells are better but the Mikita's seem to work well enough for pro's to rely on them for well over a decade.
Have you used the curved base Mikita planer? Mine has proven itself invaluable when doing the curved buttress braces that are a feature of my great room..
I did try the trick they mentioned of removing one of the blades to get the hand hewn look and it worked as advertized.. (however since I don't like the look I never did anything more than the test piece)..
I use my Mikita stuff on my timberframe. it's a double timberframe, timbers on the outside tie into timbers on the inside.
The outside timbers are black walnut while the inside timbers are white oak..(SIP's in between)
I'm glad to see a realitor is getting his hands dirty.. Must be hard to get established especially in your area.. I've a former pilot buddy who's a realitor in Montana, Collin Bangs. If you know him or ever see him tell him Hi from Frenchy..
Our Mafells are 110. We don't have any of the curved base planers. We talk about them a lot while belt sanding, however. On smaller stuff (ie if we can lift it) we have an awesome Laguna bandsaw that cuts reeeeeally smooth.I think on production timberframe work the Mafells are, in fact, worth 10X more. They are definitely 5x as fast for cutting hundreds of lineal feet of mortise per job. Plus, since the chain runs parallel to the edge-grain, there is no blowout at the ends of the mortise. I can wack out a 4x1.5 inch mortise in about 15 seconds.Aren't you in the Twin Cities? I swung my first hammer and learned most of my skills with Jones Design Build, a sweet remodeling company in Minneapolis (actually Shorewood now). Any pictures of this walnut frame?
Jesse,
I looked at getting a bigger bandsaw for my work and decided it wasn't worth it.. Instead I use a little Jet 14 inch with a riser..
Works like a breeze on Fir or pine (my neighbor used it on his house) but strains when working on those big white oak timbers..
The final cut looks like a six year olds refrigerator paintings but twenty minutes work with the curved base Mikita sweetens everything right up.. I didn't know about the 110 volt Mafells, when I bought my Mikita's it was 220 volt 50 cycle (which I understand works OK on our 60 cycle) If I'd intended to do anything more than my one timberframe I might have considered the Mafell if I'd known they offered 110 volt.
I take a couple of minutes to set up for cutting a mortice pocket and it's several minutes to actually punch the pocket out.. Nowdays I punch out the pockets and then go after it with the planer. finishing up with a DA..
By myself I figure it takes me a little over an hour per foot of length.
I have three things which slow me down.
First is that I let the timbers dry out. invariably that sets up little twist or bow which I then remove with the planer.. (yeh everything was stickered and banded together but you'd be amazed at how these timbers dance around!
second I'm usuing white oak or black walnut.. Now I can usually get two black walnut timbers done before I need to change blades but white oak kills the blades in a single timber. Occasionaly I need to even change the blades in the middle of a timber if it's really be nasty to me.. At one time I had 22 sets of blades. Some fresh some being sharpened and some dull. I visitedthe sharpener twice a week. to drop off some blades and pick up some..
Third I'm getting old.. Rolling over a 12 x12 20 ft long white oak timber is not something I can do with one hand anymore.. even the small timbers requires a lot of effort.
There are pictures posted here but they are really old so they might not even be available in the archieves..
as for getting more pictures posted, I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong..
I need a computer geek to help me..
Yep I'm in the twin cities but I think Jones has changed their name.
Sure would like some pictures.
Did you follow this thread for help
http://forums.taunton.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=tp-breaktime&msg=71190.48
whoa , jesse.. that is so cool
Very cool. Do you have any pictures from further back so we can get a better idea of what the whole house look s like? Thanks for sharing.
Your mind is on vacation and your mouth is working overtime - Mose Allison
Here is the best I can do...not very good, I know. One is the front porch seen earlier and the second is from the back...there will be a deck in there someday (maybe there is now). This house is on 20 of the sweetest acres I have ever seen with absolutely drop dead views of Trapper Peak and the southern Bitterroot Mountains. Too bad they didn't tear it down and start from scratch, but it is going pretty well I think.That's about it for pictures. I sure wish I would have had my digital camera earlier to take pics of some other incredible and much more impressive frames we have cut.
Beautiful work. Are you around Hamiltor or Darby? I'm always amazed at the number of timberframe companies down there.
Does the roof get built at the yard and then assembled again at the house, or are the peices all layed out and cut by formula?
Post more pictures, they're great.
zak
The office is in Hamilton and shop is in Corvallis, but you have probably never seen our shop or heard of us. For some reason the owners like to fly under the radar...they don't like tirekickers, or something.This project was all drawn on autocad, then layed out and cut in the shop. The only time we assemble as we build is if it is full scribe. We aren't logdogs, after all. :)And yeah, there are is a ton of timber and logwork in the Bitterroot. Pretty amazing, really.
Thanks, Jesse. We'll look forward to seeing future projects!
Your mind is on vacation and your mouth is working overtime - Mose Allison
Beautiful trusses!
Would love to learn the skills for timber framing. The interior trusses I bulit in the other photos have allthread and hardware spec'd by the architect.
Very nice work!
Howie
Jesse
Looks cool!
Doug
Great work Jesse!
Mike